Mr. No || NCT || Completed

41 - Where small talk isn't for everyone

Chaewon stared at Renjun, waiting for him to tell her that she had misunderstood him. "What do you mean?" She seemed baffled. "Do you mean what should we do about my hunch?"

"What else could I have meant?" He took another turn. Soon they would arrive to the hotel parking lot and they needed to decide the next course of action before that. "Some mysterious person is looking into the car crash and searching for information about your grandmother, so it's likely that someone has their eye on the hotel as well. Also, I think that I might have seen our tail yesterday."

Even without looking, he knew that Chaewon wanted an explanation so, before she could ask, he proceeded to tell her about the two men who had been keeping an eye on him in the hotel lobby on the previous night

"I guess that first we need to decide what do we want to achieve if they are waiting for us in the hotel", Chaewon started speaking after a moment. "Do we want to pretend that we don't know about them, confront them or mislead them and hide?"

Renjun hummed in approval. "Since we don't know who they are or why they are interested in our investigation, we should get rid of them."

A horrified gasp escaped Chaewon's mouth.

Renjun rolled his eyes at her dramatic antics. "I meant 'get rid of' as in make sure that they don't follow us." While he did occasionally entertain some violent thoughts, he didn't want to commit murder.
Most likely.

"Oh." She cleared her throat. "Well, in that case we should try to get our stuff and leave the hotel without them noticing it, right?"

***

"Do you mind if I join you?" Renjun asked in a cheery voice and pulled out a chair before either of the two men who had stared at him on the previous night had time to react.

Just like on the previous evening, the men were sitting in the lobby with some whiskey, keeping an eye on the lobby and all of the customers. They had noticed him right away when he had entered through the revolving doors, though they had pretended not to pay any attention to him while he bought himself a drink. Their confusion was obvious when he wanted to sit down with them.

The men exchanged a brief look, before one of them nodded to him slowly. "Go ahead."

Renjun set his cognac glass on the table and eyed the men while swirling the golden liquid inside the glass. He was seated across from one and next to the other, facing the doors and vast majority of the lobby. He had noticed that there was a large mirror covering the wall behind him, meaning that even the man whose back was facing the doors could see parts of the room through it.

"Are you here for business or on a vacation?" he asked, trying to get the conversation going. "The weather hasn't been that fun, that's for sure. It's almost as bad as Seoul."

To say that Renjun felt awkward would've been an understatement. He didn't want to talk with the people who were following them, and he didn't want to waste his time trying to distract them. Chaewon would've been a lot better at striking up conversation with the strangers, and she had even suggested switching roles with him but he had declined.

Since it was possible that the men hadn't seen her yet or drawn the connection between them, it would have been idiotic to give them any more information just because Renjun wasn't the most adept person in social situations.

The man sitting across from him glanced at him, perplexed by the clumsy conversation starter, before continuing his intense stare-off over Renjun's shoulder. He was keeping his eye on the front doors through the mirror.

"We're here because of work", the man sitting next to Renjun answered. His gaze was sweeping the lobby from one side to another. "What about you, kid?"

Based on their determination to monitor the lobby despite him sitting with them, they must have been made aware that he wasn't investigating the case alone.